Brexit borrows July 4th significance

By Larry Bell|2016-07-04T15:38:27-04:00July 4th, 2016|CFACT Insights|Comments Off on Brexit borrows July 4th significance

Federal government assaults upon constitutional 10th Amendment rights granted to American states closely parallel experiences that prompted British voters to exit the EU. They got sick and tired of oppressive legislative and regulatory control over their budgets and borders by bureaucrats in Brussels.

Sure, let’s also recognize that there are big general differences between U.S. and continental EU circumstances. Despite our international heritage as a far younger country of immigrants, we share a highly integrated popular culture, common primary language, standard monetary and judicial system, legal commerce and taxing infrastructures, and national security priorities and apparatus.

Yet historically, so do the Brits and other individual EU countries as well.

It’s shortsighted to characterize the British exit vote to reassert successful long-term sovereignty over a failing short-term experiment with UN-style globalism as a claimed isolationist retreat from world events and markets. Britain is, after all, the country that gave us the Magna Carta and defeated continental threats to its sovereignty by Spain’s King Philip II, France’s Napoleon, and Germany’s Hitler.

Many leading establishment “authorities” and their media acolytes continue to express surprise and dismay that a majority of everyday citizens revolted from the brand of utopian socialist globalism they have been pitching. It apparently came as a huge shock to learn that a majority of the “little people” from both Conservative and Labor parties revolted from helpless submission to endless business and economic growth-stifling regulatory mandates crafted by faceless and unaccountable unelected political appointees.

Yes, very much like those faceless and unaccountable unelected political appointees employed by the EPA.

Despite Armageddon warnings (again, much like global warming), they opted to bail.

And no, it’s not at all likely that American states will follow suit and opt to exit this Union…although a demographic Texit trend is evident as more and more companies and families are voting with moving vans. Forbes reported that three Texas cities (Houston, Austin, and Dallas) topped all others among the nation’s 20 fastest growing metropolitan areas in terms of population and economy during 2014-2015. Two more (Fort Worth and San Antonio) ranked 8th and 10th, respectively.

Many of those fastest growing states are special targets of repressive and costly anti-fossil energy regulations. They are not the only ones, however, that will feel the pain. The burden of the Obama Administration’s new “Clean Power Plan” will fall heavily upon businesses and residents of all states that depend upon coal and natural gas for most of their power . . . in other words, everyone, most particularly the poorest among us.

An example of EU regulatory oppression of British national interests involves restrictions upon their fishing industries. Prior to joining the Union, Britain had access to 80% of European waters. This was subsequently reduced to a maximum 13% quota.

A disastrous “Common Fishing Policy” introduced in 1970 led to a huge decline of fish stocks, wasteful discarding of fish, destruction of Britain’s fishing industry, and social and economic distress in coastal communities. Although British and Irish waters account for 60% of what has now been declared to be EU’s “shared resource” waters, British fishing rights have since been reduced to a mere 12 miles.

Brexit voters, along with citizens of many American states, expressly share common alarm about unaccountable big and ever-growing governments which fail to fulfill their most fundamental responsibility of all, namely, to protect national security. Here, as in the EU, open border politics and policies enable and even encourage uncontrolled numbers of non-vetted immigrants to compete for jobs, overburden school and social service budgets, and in worst cases, exacerbate violent crime and terrorism threats.

A whopping 33% of Brexit voters believed that their government was powerless to prevent a flood of more immigrants from the continent if Britons elected to remain in the EU. The U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper reported that, “Public concern over immigration has delivered a ‘significant’ boost to the leave campaign amid growing concern about Britain’s ability to control its borders, a new poll suggests.”

Circumstances here are comparable or worse. Current federal government policies not only turn blind eyes to porous southern borders, but even condone sanctuary cities as magnets for those who enter illegally along with repeatedly convicted drug traffickers and violent criminals who continuously recycle in their midst.

People on both sides of the big pond have strong reasons to be concerned about ever-expanding government encroachments upon long-cherished and hard-earned self-governance and liberties. Last month the British electorate decided that this trend was unacceptable. They wanted their sovereignty back, and voted to take back control of their country.

Perhaps this year Americans will vote to do the same thing, just as they did on this date in 1776 to secure independence from them.

Authors

CFACT Advisor Larry Bell heads the graduate program in space architecture at the University of Houston. He founded and directs the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture. He is also the author of "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax."

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